The invention relates to a scaffold, in particular facade scaffolds.
Facade scaffolds are, for example, known from DE 196 33 091 A1 and serve in general the purpose of being erected in front of the facade of a building construction in order to carry out work on it, for example plaster work or painting work. The diagonal supports which serve to stabilize the scaffold against horizontal shifts normally extend from a point directly above one transverse strut to a point of the neighboring vertical support which lies slightly below the transverse strut located above it. The diagonal struts must be secured to the vertical supports so that both tensile forces and also compression forces can be exerted by the vertical supports onto the diagonal supports.
In known scaffolds forwardly projecting tilting fingers are provided for this purpose at the relevant points of the vertical supports, onto which bores complementary thereto at the ends of the diagonal supports are pushed. Another possibility consists in welding onto the vertical supports at the relevant positions suitable fittings with which the ends of the diagonal supports can be brought into the required engagement. The disadvantage of the known scaffolds lies in the fact that, on being loaded, the diagonal supports exert torsional moments onto the vertical supports and in that special components must be mounted on the vertical supports in order to be able to secure the diagonal supports.
A lightweight grid support construction is known from EP-A-0 140 948, which consists of vertical and horizontal support elements and also diagonal struts arranged therebetween. In order to avoid welded connections with this lightweight grid support construction, and to simplify installation, the vertical and horizontal support elements are connected by means of installable node connectors which have a form-locked and force transmitting connection to the vertical and horizontal support elements, with the node connectors each being divided into two half shells, which surround the vertical support elements in force transmitting manner and engage by means of projections in form-fitted manner into corresponding holes of the vertical support elements, and the node connectors furthermore forming connection spigots, onto which the horizontal support elements can be pushed and retained in force transmitting manner.
A scaffold with vertical, horizontal and diagonal supports is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,435,171, in which pairs of vertical sleeves are welded onto the vertical supports in order to receive therein the bent around ends of the diagonal supports.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,552,233 shows a scaffold having vertical, horizontal and diagonal supports in which holes are provided in the walls of the vertical supports extending perpendicular to the plane defined by the vertical and diagonal supports and in which the bent around ends or fastening pins for the diagonal and horizontal supports are arranged.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,583 discloses a safety catch with which support tubes can be secured to vertical rails provided with openings.